Alan Hovhaness

Alan Hovhaness (born Alan Vaness Chakmakjian in Somerville) was an American composer of Armenian and Scottish descent. A precocious talent who wrote his first compositions while still at school, he studied at Tufts University and the New England Conservatory and later trained at Tanglewood with Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein and Bohuslav Martinů. In the late 1940s he taught at the Boston Conservatory and increasingly drew on Armenian, Indian and Japanese musical traditions.

Hovhaness became one of the twentieth century’s most prolific composers, producing more than seventy symphonies and over five hundred works. His idiom blends modal melodies, exotic rhythms and meditative textures to create a spiritual fusion of Western and Eastern elements. He received several honorary doctorates, founded his own label Poseidon Records in 1965 and served as composer-in-residence with the Seattle Symphony in 1966. Hovhaness travelled widely through Asia and is remembered for his unique voice and deeply felt music.